On Christmas Eve, just before the kids went to bed, my wife prepared two bags of “reindeer food” for the kids to give to Santa’s reindeer. It was a mixture of instant oatmeal and glitter in two plastic zip bags. The kids took it excitedly but were unsure what to do with it. We walked outside with them and stood in the front yard.

“It’s reindeer food,” my wife told them. Their eyes widened. “We’ll throw it into the yard for the reindeer so they can have a snack when Santa comes.” She motioned them toward the yard expectantly.

They stood there for a few seconds, still uncertain what to do. Then the Girl pulled back and heaved the entire thing, bag and all, into the yard.

“Wait, wait, wait,” the lovely and talented wife said. “You take it out of the bag first and then sprinkle it around.”

“They eat it with the grass,” I suggested.

Little light bulbs went on over little heads. “Oh!”

The Girl retrieved her bag, opened it, and began sprinkling it around the yard. The Boy mimicked his sister, and before long both of them were prancing around the yard, happily throwing instant oats and glitter into the grass, and shouting out the reindeer’s names.

“On Prancer, on Dasher, on Rudolph!”

“Go Cupid! Go Nixon!”

Any of our neighbors who peeked out the window at that moment would have seen my wife and I standing on our front porch smiling and laughing in the yellow porch light; our two children running around the yard in circles, the Girl in pajamas, the Boy in chonies and an undershirt; both of them jumping and laughing and flinging glitter and oatmeal into the yard chanting, “Go, Nixon, GO!” over and over again. It was amazing.

We had a great Christmas and we hope you did too.

Comments

1. Elaine on 2006-12-27 19:56:57 wrote: I love that idea with the oats and those Republican reindeer, you gotta love them. Indeed, a great Christmas memory. You call them chonies too! Wishing you the same great memories for the New Year!

2. Amy on 2006-12-28 06:38:25 wrote: I am TOTALLY going to use that idea next year.